


this is for the snakes and the people they bite.

by recreationalvampirism



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bittersweet, F/M, Light Angst, Running Away, Sad with a Happy Ending, real sad boi hours
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-06
Updated: 2019-04-06
Packaged: 2020-01-05 12:42:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18366257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recreationalvampirism/pseuds/recreationalvampirism
Summary: In the past, Barry knew two kids, his only friends. They were flamboyant and dramatic and beautiful, but one of them always stood out to him. One day, they ask him something impossible. He does it.In the present, Barry wonders if you can love somebody you never really knew.





	this is for the snakes and the people they bite.

**Author's Note:**

> tw: mentions of conversion therapy and hints toward abuse ! stay safe :D

“I’m transgender.”

Barry was taken aback a little. “Um, what?”

“I’m a girl,” the person on his bed explained, “It just took me seventeen years to realize.”

“Okay,” he replied. He felt his mom would be concerned that there was a girl in his bed, but he’d originally thought she was a boy, and he guessed it didn’t matter, since his intentions were the same. “So, uh, do I still call you--”

“No. I want a new name.”

“So what do I call you now?”

“I dunno,” she said, a ghost of a smile playing on her mouth, “But I like Lup, like Chalupa.”

“Lup,” Barry repeated. “I like that.”

“That’s good.”

Lup stretched out upon the mattress. Her arm caught the light in between the blinds, highlighting her dark, rich skin and freckles. She wiggled her fingers a little, then let them rest, her hand curling. She turned her face away from him, and he had to blow her short hair away from his mouth. “I think my parents suspect.”

“Why do you think that?” Barry asked.

“No real reason, I guess,” she replied, turning on her back and looking at the ceiling. “But I liked playing dress up with dresses and heels and shit, and after I reached a certain age they stopped condoning it. It went from being cute to being alarming real quick. But that’s really their only reason. They don’t get along with my brother, though-- they have fights all the time because he can’t really hide it, him being flamboyant. I get really worried.”

“About you or about him?”

“About us.”

Lup was right. Nobody said it, but everybody knew Taako was gay. It wasn’t a matter of great importance to anybody, and it wasn’t like anyone was surprised anyways-- he was a drama nerd with a thing for fashion and calling people pet names like “darling.” It was one of those things that you just knew. The world is round, the sky is blue, Taako is homosexual.

Barry didn’t know what to do, so he touched her hand, gently, softly. She grabbed his, weaving her long fingers in between his. She turned to him, dark eyes with long fluttering lashes, sharp upturned nose, soft-looking mouth that he never could keep his eyes off. She was extraordinary, beautiful, sharp, soft--

She clasped his wrist gently, and held it against the sheets as she leaned down and kissed him chastely. He hadn’t even realized she was on him for a few seconds.

He loved her. He’d loved her for a long time, when she was onstage with Taako doing improv during drama club, he loved her when he watched her punch some creep as Magnus held her back because they were in school, for God’s sake, he loved her, now, in this moment, as he kissed her back, and he felt a tear on his cheek, and he knew she was crying for herself and for Taako, because they had parents who would never accept them, who would always try to change them, and he kissed her again, on her forehead, and held her. He didn’t know what else to do.

  
  


Barry awoke to the sound of the phone. He picked it up

“Barry, you have to help me.” 

It was past midnight, Barry observed, yawning. “What is it, Lup?”

“My parents are trying to send us, Taako and I, oh my god,” she choked out, and he woke up, because he knew something was wrong.

“Where are they trying to make you go to?”

“Conversion therapy,” she spat. Barry felt his heart start beating faster. His mom had a dead friend because of conversion therapy. “They cut my hair off too, I feel like shit, Taako has a black eye, I can’t go. I can’t go.”

“You’re not gonna go,” he promised her. “I’ll take you to your aunt’s.”

“I don’t want her getting in trouble for us. Homeless shelter. Take us to a homeless shelter. Please.”

“The nearest one is an hour away, Lup--”

“Please.”

“On my way.” He hung up and went to get his jacket.

His mother was a light sleeper, and tended to be awake around this time. He heard her walk to his room as he put on his jacket.

“Is something going on?”

“Yeah, Mom, my friends are in really big trouble. I’m going to take them somewhere safe.”

“You just got your license, Barry.”

“My friends are in danger. I promise I’ll be safe and I won’t get into any trouble.”

“Okay,” she yawned, and padded away, probably heading to the kitchen. He knew he’d get a talking to in the morning, when she’d actually woken up, but he was okay with that.

He kept the radio off as he drove and his wind wipers going. It was foggy and drizzling out.

Taako and Lup’s house was completely dark. He prayed they were okay, that nothing else happened.

A few minutes later, he saw two figures outside, with backpacks, walking quickly but quietly to his car. He hit the unlock button.

Lup’s face was tear stained, her hair cut from shoulder length (she had been so excited) to her chin, her mouth set in a line. Taako had a black eye as she had mentioned, no tears, only furrowed brows and a bleeding lip. He took out scissors from his bag. “Turn around,” he ordered Lup.

“Can you do that while I drive?” Barry asked.

“I can do this in a hurricane,” Taako snapped. “Hit the gas.”

And so he drove, as Taako cut Lup’s hair, cropped in the back, longer and curly in the front, and did her makeup, with penciled cat eyes and maroon lipstick. They were both quiet during the whole drive. Barry stayed quiet too, but he turned up the radio a little bit for them. He felt like Wannabe was an inappropriate song for the occasion, but it was playing.

The GPS took a little while, but they made it to the shelter. He hoped it was open. Did it have hours? He didn’t know.

It had hours. It wouldn’t be open for a while.

“Let’s just sleep,” Barry suggested. Lup took that as her chance and fell asleep on Taako’s shoulder. Barry took out a book.

“She loves you,” Taako said, eyes narrowed.

“I love her too,” Barry replied.

“Thanks for doing this for us.”

“Anytime.”

“Well, darling, hopefully this will be the only time.”

 

He hugged each of them goodbye, blinking back tears. “I’m gonna miss you guys.”

“I won’t miss you, nerd,” Taako rolled his eyes, but gave him another hug.

He finally broke down when Lup kissed him, holding his face in her hands.

 

Barry tried to move on. He graduated in the top ten of his class and got an acceptance letter into his dream college, a ticket out of the little town he couldn’t care less about. He was going to get his degree, get into IPRE, forget his old life.

In his first semester, he thought about changing his mind. He loved school, loved his professors, loved doing things. He was in his element. Maybe he should stay in it, become a professor. He didn’t know yet. He just kept going, riding his emotional high. He got invited out to parties every weekend, but he was too busy to go to any of them. There were girls, and some guys, that caught his eye, and he knew he caught maybe a few eyes (or so he hoped), but he ended up never pursuing anybody. He always ended up in his dorm, playing around with Legos or robotic design.

 

A few years later, he was working towards a master’s. He was in line ready to pay for next semester’s classes when he caught sight of light blue hair. He hadn’t seen that color before, or if he had, he hadn’t noticed. 

He didn’t pay attention until they turned around. They looked kind of familiar. Probably some celebrity lookalike or something.

 

He still thought about Lup, sometimes. It hadn’t been that long between her coming out to him and her parents finding him. A few weeks, maybe a month, if he remembered correctly. He wondered what happened. He was glad he didn’t know.

Thinking about her made him sad. It was one of those situations you could never make better. For all he knew, they’d gone back to their parents and ended up in conversion therapy anyways. Then he got upset at himself for being sad. He hadn’t really known them, anyways. They were just his school friends. Lup was a girl he had managed to kiss twice, and the first time he thought he was kissing a boy, because he didn’t know her. He probably didn’t even know her at all.

His memory wasn’t helping either. He forgot little bits of her every time, what her favorite song was to sing at the top of her lungs, what her favorite jacket looked like and what happened to it, what the dress Taako designed for her looked like.

 

A few weeks later, he took his place in his robotics class, next to a girl with cool prosthetics who introduced herself as Noelle. He saw light blue hair again, in a bun.

After class, he found them again, and approached them. “Hey,” he said.

They turned around, and he came face to face with dark eyes with long fluttering lashes, a sharp upturned nose, and a soft-looking mouth that he never could keep his eyes off.

“Oh,” was all he could think to say.

“Oh my god,” Lup said. “Holy shit. Oh my god. What the fuck. What the  _ fuck. _ ”

 

“I didn’t think I’d see you again,” Barry told her, taking another sip of his Monster. They were sitting on the twin-sized mattress in his dorm room.

“You thought wrong, dummy,” she replied.

“I thought wrong.”

They kissed again, not for the first time. Not for the last, either.

Her hair was a sky blue undercut now, kept in a messy topknot. Her makeup had improved, too. She had mentioned earlier that she did it herself, and grinned, obviously proud of her sharp winged eyeliner and maroon lipstick. She wore a red bomber jacket with a trans button pinned to her chest.

“I’ve been taking estrogen pills,” she said. “They’re so great.”

“What do they do?”

“I call em tiddy skittles, because they make my boobs bigger and they move around body fat parts so I have hips now too.”

“That sounds, uh, really interesting, actually.”

“I’m sure it is when you see the actual science behind it.” Lup yawned and laid on his bed, stretched out. He set down his energy drink and laid on his side, looking at her. 

“I heard there’s a party going on,” someone said while opening the door. Taako. His hair was dyed silvery-white, in a messy bun. Hipster glasses perched on his nose. A handsome black man with long dreads was behind him, surveying the room.

“Hey, Taako, Krav,” Lup smiled, sitting up. “Meet Barry.”

“Babe, this is Barry, we committed a crime together once.”

“Oh, that’s nice. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Barry.”

“Good to meet you too.” They shook hands

“Barry, you should come to the GSA thing that’s kinda going on in town. Not a lot of people show up, it’s mostly people from the university and like one professor and her wife, and some older folks sometimes, and sometimes we go to the gay bar and get cool sounding drinks.” Taako made a motion with his hand that implied alcohol.

“Uh, okay? I’m not gay or transgender though.”

“You’re bi, aren’t you?”

“Uh. I don’t know, actually. I never thought about it.”

“We’re taking you with us.”

“Alright then!”

“I think we’re going to the tattoo place because Beau was talking about getting something and Lup wanted something on her knuckles,” Kravitz said.

“I’m still  _ hella  _ down for that,” Lup piped up.

Barry smiled. They were the same after all. He knew them, hadn’t forgotten them.

**Author's Note:**

> uhhh this fic has been in the works for MONTHS yall, i wrote the summary like right after or maybe during the last fic i wrote and left it and kept trying to write it and it kept not working. anyway i tried writing it again and produced 5 pages of work. amazing  
> thank you for reading!  
> fun fact: the first part is kind of set in the late 90s ig?? time isn't my strong suit oop


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